1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information-processing device, an information-processing method, a recording medium, and a program. Particularly, the present invention relates to an information-processing device, an information-processing method, a recording medium, and a program, which allow for returning content borrowed by a borrower to a lender even when the borrower does not have the content.
2. Description of the Related Art
As digital technology progresses, it becomes possible to store and reproduce content such as music or video without decreasing the quality thereof.
However, because of such technological advances, it becomes also possible to lend and borrow such content in an illegal manner. Accordingly, in general content-lending systems comprising a lender and a borrower of content, the borrower cannot borrow the content from the lender more than a predetermined number of times (hereinafter referred to as the lendable number) to prevent illegal lending.
More specifically, every time the borrower borrows the content from the lender, the lendable number, which is controlled by the lender, is decremented. After the content is lent repeatedly and when the lendable number becomes zero, the borrower is prevented from borrowing the content.
For returning the content, a predetermined processing (hereinafter referred to as the known return processing) is performed by the lender and the borrower. Subsequently, the content held by the borrower is deleted, and the lendable number controlled by the lender is incremented and is thereby restored.
However, when the device of the borrower is incorrectly formatted, the device may delete the contents before the known return processing is performed. In such case, since the borrower does not have the content, the known return processing is not properly performed. That is to say, the lender cannot increment or restore the lendable number that was decremented for lending the content and thereby loses the chance of lending as many times as the unrestored lendable number.